The Long Rocky Road" the History of the Meadow View Mine Fourth of July Creek, Custer County, Idaho
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"The Long Rocky Road" The History of the Meadow View Mine Fourth of July Creek, Custer County, Idaho by Dean A. Enderlin & Elmer E. Enderlin January 2001 Web Version Copyright (c) Dean A. Enderlin, 2005 All rights reserved Introduction High in a glacier-sculpted canyon east of central Idaho's Sawtooth Valley, up a long rocky road, there is a place where the beauty of the mountains and the toils of men have entwined. Since George Washington Blackman first prospected this place in the 1870's, its mineral wealth has drawn men with dreams. It is not a place of gold rushes. It is a place where the mountains have yielded metals such as tungsten, molybdenum, zinc, lead and silver. Blackman left his mark on these mountains, both with his prospects and with the landmarks that bear his name. Blackman Peak and Washington Peak are among these monuments to his toil. Others followed Blackman to this place, struggling up the ten miles of bumpy trail to the head of the canyon to work their prospects. Scattered log cabins, old adits, and bits and pieces of old mining equipment are testimony to these labors of the past. The stories of these miners have faded from memory. Some are now known only by name and not by their accomplishments. There is a sense that a lot of work was conducted here, and yet few people know the stories. Of those who worked this place, one man stands out as having followed closely in the steps of George Blackman, leaving his own mark on the history and lore of this place. His name is Elmer Enderlin, and this is the story of his mine. Arrival at Fourth of July Creek Elmer Elwood Enderlin lived the life of a hard rock miner. He was born April 23, 1912, near Lower Lake, Lake County, California, and began his mining career at the age of 21. He worked in mines throughout the West, from California to Utah to Montana. As a self-professed "tramp miner," he never stayed in one place very long. After World War II, Elmer drifted between the mines in Butte, Montana, and mines in northern Idaho. His first experience with Idaho mining was at the Sunshine mine in Wallace, where he lasted one shift. Next, he headed for the Couer D'Alene Mines in Kellogg, where he stuck it out for about one month. From there, he went to the Highland-Surprise Consolidated Mining Company in Kellogg, where he worked for about three years (one of his longest stints at one mine). It was at the Highland-Surprise that the story of the Meadow View mine begins. One day, in 1949, some of the men working with Elmer at the Highland-Surprise showed him some specimens of galena collected from down by Stanley, Idaho, in the Boulder Mining District. Elmer thought the ore specimens looked promising, so he drove his brand-new '49 Ford sedan out to the prospect to investigate. The prospect was called the Rupert mine, and it was located near the headwaters of Fourth of July Creek near Blackman Peak. It was not an easy site to get to, however. Access was via a ten-mile-long rough and rocky trail that followed the course of Fourth of July Creek up to a cluster of mining claims at the 9,000 foot elevation. These claims included the Deer Trail and Confidence mines. The Rupert lay a short distance to the south of these workings, on a west-facing slope on the opposite side of the canyon from Blackman Peak. It was owned by Rupert Nice together with four or five other claims called the FDR-1, FDR-2, FDR-3, etc. Nice's grandfather had once held claim to the mine years before. Elmer liked what he saw at the Rupert mine, so he formed a partnership with two other gentlemen to work it. Under the terms of the deal, Elmer would arrange to have a road built to the Rupert, while the others would arrange to bring up an air compressor and other mining machinery. Elmer had the road built, but his partners never showed up with the equipment. "It all blew up," according to Elmer. The road was built in 1949 by Jim Bradley of the Tunnel Rock Ranch. Jim had an Allis-Chalmers HD5 bulldozer, and charged about $75 per hour to get the job done. The whole project cost about $200 to $300, paid for by Elmer. Meanwhile, Elmer had set himself to the task of arranging for lodging in these primitive surroundings. There was an old log cabin on the nearby Confidence claims that was available, so Elmer made arrangements with the owners (Arnold and Marie Fuller, and Louis and Ada Gossi) to lease the cabin and surrounding claims. The deal with Fullers and Gossis was struck on September 8, 1949, to lease with an option to buy the Confidence Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4; Confidence Millsites Nos. 1, 2; and Silver Dollar Nos. 1, 2, 3 claims. While waiting for Jim Bradley to complete the road, Elmer improved his new-found headquarters by building a log privy nearby! So it was that Elmer Enderlin had officially set up operations on Fourth of July Creek! Once settled in, Elmer began to work his various leased claims. To help him, he formed a partnership with Henry Connolly (1882-1975).1 Connolly had worked for the Sidney Mining Company in Kellogg, and the two had met at the local restaurant where each frequently ate. Connolly was sixty-seven years old, retired and drawing social security at the time they formed their partnership, but he still liked to keep a hand in mining. Connolly was more than just extra help for Elmer, he also had a new 1949 Studebaker truck, which was a welcome addition to the equipment! By the winter of 1949, the partnership of Enderlin and Connolly had assembled quite the mining empire. Not only were they working the Confidence claims at Fourth of July Creek and the Silver Dollar claims at nearby Strawberry Basin, they also had a 50:50 partnership in claims at Pine Creek, near Kellogg! When not working the prospects, Elmer enjoyed hunting and exploring his new-found empire at Fourth of July Creek. On many occasions, he would go out hunting for deer and elk in the area. On one of his first hunts in 1949, Elmer noticed a red-stained streak of color on an exposure of rock in a basin known as Five Lakes, about one and a half miles south of the Rupert mine. He had passed Phyllis Lake, and was on his way up the ridge toward Washington Peak when he made the discovery. After collecting a few pieces of interesting rock from the outcrop, Elmer continued on his way toward Washington Basin to attend to the more pressing duty of finding some deer meat! Connolly was not impressed when Elmer arrived back at the cabin after his hunt. When he asked Elmer if his hunt had been successful, Elmer responded that he didn't get any meat, but "I sure got some pretty rocks!" Connolly had expected venison, not rocks, and he was more anxious to get back to Kellogg to see a lady friend of his than to stake another claim! Connolly exclaimed, "Rocks! Oh, we got piles of rocks," and added, "Christ! It would cost a million dollars to put in a road up there!" Nevertheless, Elmer convinced him to hike up the ridge to have a look. Connolly was skeptical, but in spite of his protests he agreed to help Elmer stake new claims, provided he had a 1/3 interest in the deal. They hurriedly staked their new claims late in 1949. The beauty of the alpine surroundings at their new prospect was breathtaking. The claims occupied a landscape sculpted by ice-age glaciers, with rock-step lakes and mountain meadows surrounded by arête peaks rising over a thousand feet above them. High on the cliffs above, mountain goats clattered on the rocky ledges, while rock rabbits (picas) chirped from beneath jumbles of talus alongside the meadow. So inspiring was this spot, that the prospectors named their mine in its honor... calling it the Meadow View. In spite of the beauty of their mountain setting, the partners knew that winter was approaching. This high in the mountains, snow storms could come up quickly, leaving the roads impassable. With the staking of the Meadow View claims, their work for the season was done, and they returned to Kellogg to focus on other matters over the winter. The D.M.E.A. Contract In the summer of 1950, Enderlin and Connolly returned to their claims on Fourth of July Creek. The trek up the canyon was difficult so early in the season, and they shoveled considerable amounts of snow and rock to clear their way. One of their goals in this early visit was to relocate the Meadow View claims. They had discovered an error in the claim layout, which resulted in gaps ("fractions") between some of the claims. To clear up this problem, they reset the claim posts and filed new mining locations that summer. The new claims were filed in August, 1950, and their boundaries have remained unchanged since that time. Aside from restaking the claims in 1950, little else was done at the Meadow View that year. The partners had little money between them, and besides, there was much planning that needed to be done to determine the best way to mine the claims.